Pitching a 4th one

On September 9, 1965 future Baseball Hame of Famer Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched his fourth career no-hitter, a 1-0 perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. Many fans and the media as well thought for sure they had witnessed a record that would never be broken, let alone tied.

Lurking deep in the minors, another future Hall of famer was making his mark. 18 year old Nolan Ryan had just completed his first year in professional baseball at Marion, Virginia in the ppalachiian League. To make a long story short, Ryan pitched his fourth major league no-hitter on June 1, 1975, less then 10 full years after Koufax had pitched his fourth. Ironically, Ryan pitched his fifth against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the very team that Koufax had pitched for. Ryan would finish his career with seven no-hitters.

Will this record ever be broken? Possibly will be. Probably, not as fewer and fewer pitchers are pitching complete games any more. Saturday night saw Roy Halliday pitch a perfect game, but that was his first in a long career. He may pitch another someday, but to pitch a third or fourth at this point in his career, not likely.

Tomorrow we will look at a 24 run inning.